Forging Ahead: Tien, Basavareddy, and Engel’s Pro Transitions
The ATP Tour’s grind tests young talents with tighter margins and endless travel, but Learner Tien, Nishesh Basavareddy, and Justin Engel are turning those trials into momentum, their 2025 surges revealing paths built on adaptation and grit.
The shift to professional tennis arrives like a blistering inside-out forehand, demanding precision under unrelenting pressure. Emerging players face compressed points, ceaseless journeys across time zones, and setbacks that arrive more frequently than in junior or college ranks. Yet Learner Tien, Nishesh Basavareddy, and Justin Engel have woven these rigors into their growth, transforming the tour’s psychological and physical demands into stepping stones during a pivotal 2025.
Tien navigates global exposures
Tien spent one semester at the University of Southern California before committing to the pros in 2023, a move that thrust him into international circuits where travel dominated his early challenges. Rarely competing outside the United States before, he grappled with back-to-back weeks on the road, each match unveiling the pro game’s heightened tempo amid varying crowd energies—from hushed baseline exchanges to roaring finals. This immersion sharpened his tactical responses, like deploying deep crosscourt returns to disrupt rhythms on hard courts.
His 2024 experiences propelled a breakout year, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF last December on indoor hard, where he refined one–two patterns against rising peers. At the Australian Open, the 19-year-old American made history as the youngest man to reach the fourth round in Melbourne since Rafael Nadal in 2005, claiming his first Grand Slam win and entering the Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings amid the arena’s electric hum. Those deep runs extended to fourth-round showings at ATP Masters 1000 events in Toronto and Shanghai, where he mixed underspin slices to counter aggressive inside-in forehands on faster surfaces.
“For me personally, I never played much outside the U.S., so I think the travel and the amount of weeks on the road consecutively is probably the biggest difference,” Tien told ATPTour.com. “And with the results and matches, it wasn’t really just one match. Each match, win or lose, I felt like I was just learning a lot from all of them. I was being exposed to a different level, and that was really good for me.”
“I didn’t think I made it after Australia and still don’t,” he reflected, his voice carrying the weight of ambition. “I want to go further. But Australia was very special for me, breaking the Top 100, my first slam win, that’s probably the most memorable tournament I’ve had so far.” These milestones, forged in the heat of major spotlights, position him to chase deeper tournament penetrations as the season unfolds.
Basavareddy builds from college contrasts
Basavareddy, guided early by Rajeev Ram, excelled at Stanford University, balancing coursework with matches on slower college surfaces before turning professional at the end of last season. The pro circuit’s intensity contrasted sharply: infrequent college losses gave way to weekly defeats that chipped at confidence, while the full-time schedule amplified recovery needs between events. A first-round qualifying loss at Roland Garros in 2025, under the clay’s demanding spin, forced a comprehensive reevaluation of his game.
“The biggest transition from college to pros is just completely different tennis-wise,” Basavareddy explained. “In college, you play a couple matches a week and losing is rare. On tour, it’s your full-time job, you start losing a lot more, and sometimes that can take a hit to your confidence.” That setback in Paris prompted adjustments, including enhanced footwork to handle topspin rallies and refined serve placements to open courts for down-the-line finishes.
In 2023, practicing at the Nitto ATP Finals exposed him to elite routines—diets, training, and the sheer power of serves from players like Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, whose blistering pace demanded quick slices and elevated returns. This insight fueled two ATP Challenger titles in 2024 and a semifinal run in Auckland this year, where his consistent inside-out forehands stretched opponents wide on outdoor hard. Facing Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open’s first round on Rod Laver Arena, he captured a set against the 24-time major champion, the crowd’s surge affirming his readiness amid nerve-testing baseline duels.
“Playing on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open, I didn’t know how the nerves would affect me,” Basavareddy admitted. “But I thought I handled it well. Being one-set all with one of the greatest of all time, that was when I really felt like I belonged.”
“It was a big hit mentally,” he added of the Roland Garros defeat. “But I feel like that made me reconsider a lot of things and try to see where I could really improve in all aspects of my game.” “Being around those eight guys, seeing what they do every day, what they eat, how they train, that was huge,” he continued. “It was also the first time I hit with that big of a ball in my life. Either Sinner or Alcaraz had the most impressive one, different kinds of balls, but both really tough to deal with.” His steady climb, marked by discipline across levels, sets the stage for bolder challenges ahead.
Engel accelerates from junior direct
The 18-year-old German Engel bypassed college, leaping straight from juniors into the men’s game, where the physicality tested his every stroke from the outset. Born in 2007, he claimed the first tour-level win for his generation by defeating Coleman Wong in Almaty’s first round last October, navigating indoor hard with varied serve depths to enable crosscourt backhands. This momentum carried to an upset over Jan-Lennard Struff on Hamburg’s clay in May, where underspin slices disrupted power before down-the-line passes clinched points, followed by a quarterfinal in Stuttgart’s grass-court volleys.
“The mental game is the toughest part,” Engel shared on his transition. “All the men’s players are fighting for every point, and it’s much harder to get points because they’re faster and hit harder. But it is all like a dream come true. When I see Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz in the locker room, it’s an unbelievable feeling. This is what I trained for all my life.” Locker-room encounters with such icons ignited his resolve, turning the tour’s solitude into focused drive amid faster rallies.
His maiden Futures title in Austria last year crystallized his potential, a breakthrough on varied surfaces that validated his aggressive net approaches. Last week, capturing his first ATP Challenger title in Hamburg elevated him three spots to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, blending tactical patience—like absorbing heavy shots before countering with inside-in forehands—with home-crowd energy on clay.
Here comes Justin Engel…
The 18-year-old has jumped three spots to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah after he won his first @ATPChallenger title in Hamburg https://t.co/wqoAVlhlxh#NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/Pls7kfnvHx— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) October 28, 2025
“That was the moment where I felt like, ‘OK, I can do this,” he said of the Austrian victory. “It was a ‘Wow, now I’m in a men’s tour and I can move on’ moment.” Every loss stokes his determination. “Every loss gives me more fire. It just makes me want to practise more and keep going.”
For these three, progress stems from incremental efforts amid the tour’s marathon—finals in Beijing for Tien, Auckland semis for Basavareddy, and Stuttgart quarters for Engel—each building resilience through daily refinements. “I’m big on working on little things at a time,” Tien noted. “All those bits of work every day add up. It seems sudden when it improves, but it honestly takes a lot longer than people think.” Basavareddy maintains that ethos. “At every level, juniors, college, pros, you need hard work and discipline. That’s always been there for me.” This second installment in the Next Gen ATP series Next in Line follows the October 21 exploration of early memories with Rei Sakamoto, Federico Cina, and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer. Deeper insights await in features on Tien’s Madrid run, Basavareddy’s Jeddah reflections, and Engel’s Munich story, while on November 4, Basavareddy joins Dino Prizmic and Martin Landaluce to discuss national role models fueling their journeys.
